Home Office

Asylum: EU Law

Baroness Jowell: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many take charge requests the UK has received from each EU country per year since Dublin III came into force; how many of those were successful; how many involved minors; and how many of those requests involving minors were successful.

Lord Keen of Elie: Data on cases progressed under the Dublin III Regulation is recorded on the main immigration database. However, this data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically and is therefore not currently available.

Asylum: France

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many asylum cases they have received from France under the Dublin III regulations.

Lord Keen of Elie: Data on cases progressed under the Dublin III Regulation is recorded on the main immigration database. However, this data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically and is therefore not currently available.

Asylum: France

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have established the current facts concerning access by the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration to (1) the informal and organised camps for refugees near Calais and Dunkirk, and (2) the Centres d’Accueil for asylum applicants elsewhere in France; and in both cases, whether there is full access during the whole, or only part, of the working week.

Lord Keen of Elie: This is a matter for the French authorities.

Health Services: Immigrants

Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether revenue generated from the immigration health surcharge for foreign nationals will be re-directed back into funding for the NHS; and if so, what measures have been put in place to achieve that.

Lord Keen of Elie: All funding derived from the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) will be spent on the National Health Service, with the exception around £7 million per annum which will be used to fund some costs that fall to the Home Office associated with collecting and handling the surcharge.The Home Office transfers funds to the Department for Health and, consistent with the Barnett Formula, the devolved administrations through the Estimates process. In the event that IHS in-come exceeds the amount transferred, the balance will be surrendered to the Consolidated Fund for Extra Receipts and made available for spending on the NHS in the following financial year.

Health Services: Immigrants

Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government in what form they will report on the revenue collected from the immigration health surcharge for foreign nationals; and whether that information will be placed in the public domain.

Lord Keen of Elie: The Home Office committed to provide information about its administration of the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) within 12 months of the surcharge going live. The Immigration Minister wrote to the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee to provide an update on 23 March, including details of the number of migrants who have paid the Surcharge and the total amount of Surcharge funding directed to the National Health Service (NHS).A copy of the letter has been placed in the House library to ensure the commitment to Parliament is met. The Home Office will also report on total IHS income received in its Annual Report and Accounts.

British Nationality

Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have received an explanation from the government of the United States as to why the approved biometric permit enrolment centres are delayed in that country; what is the revised targeted roll-out date; and what steps they are currently taking to assist those applying under the UKF form citizenship route to achieve their UK citizenship in a timely manner, whilst those centres are facing delays in implementation.

Lord Keen of Elie: The use of US Application Support Centers (ASCs) to capture biometrics for nationality (‘citizenship’) applications has required new IT provisions, as well as a refreshed Memorandum of Understanding. These changes have required the approval of both the US Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. Agreement has drawn on our strong existing relationships, but due to competing priorities has taken longer than expected.There were some initial challenges in delivering the intricate IT arrangements, resulting in delays in implementation; these have now been resolved and the IT is in place.We have advised applicants of the reasons for the delay and have put in place provisions for customers in urgent cases to attend the UK Visa office at the UK Consulate in New York to exceptionally enrol their biometrics there.Within the last week, the necessary authority has been received to proceed and we will now move to urgently finalise arrangements. We hope to be able to complete the necessary contractual work as a priority and then to begin the roll out as soon as possible thereafter.

Visas: South Asia

Lord Ahmed: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the total number of visitor visa applications received from (1) India, and (2) Pakistan, in the last six months; and what was the success rate in each case.

Lord Keen of Elie: For July to December 2015, there were 155,928 and 40,985 Entry clearance visitor visa applications from Indian and Pakistani nationals. Of the cases resolved (granted, refused, withdrawn or lapsed) in the same period, the proportion granted was 86% and 47% respectively. The information is provided in the table.The latest quarterly Home Office immigration statistics on entry clearance visas are published in ‘Immigration Statistics, October-December 2015’, available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics



Table - HL7263
(Excel SpreadSheet, 17.6 KB)

Immigration: Afghanistan

Baroness Coussins: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) Afghan interpreters, and (2) members of their immediate families, have been relocated to the UK under (a) the ex-gratia redundancy scheme, and (b) the intimidation policy.

Lord Keen of Elie: Up to the end of February, 262 Afghan locally engaged civilians along with 356 members of their families have been relocated to the UK under the ex gratia redundancy scheme.No locally engaged civilians have been relocated to the UK under the current intimidation policy. One former staff member has been relocated to the UK under a previous version of the policy.

Offences against Children

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the proportion of grooming and sexual exploitation in Rotherham and elsewhere which has been carried out by (1) Muslims, and (2) those of other faiths or no faith.

Lord Keen of Elie: The Government does not hold information on the faith of those accused or convicted of child sexual exploitation (CSE) offences.CSE is not exclusive to any single culture, community, race or religion, and anyone who abuses children must be stopped. It happens in all areas of the country and can take many different forms. However, the previous Government’s ‘Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation’ report of March 2015 makes it very clear that the issue of race, regardless of ethnic group, should be tackled as a priority if it is known to be a significant factor in the criminal activity of organised abuse in any local community.The College of Policing (CoP) has issued clear guidance on how police forces should respond to allegations of child sexual abuse and exploitation. This is available on the CoP website at: https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-content/major-investigation-and-public-protection/child-abuse/ .In addition the National Policing Lead for child protection has taken action to revise the national policing CSE action plan to take account of the learning from the Professor Alexis Jay report and other recent publications. All Chief Constables have committed to this action plan that aims to raise standards in tackling CSE so that the police are providing a consistently strong approach to protecting vulnerable young people. The action plan is available on the CoP website at: https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-content/major-investigation-and-public-protection/child-sexual-exploitation/cse-action-plan/



Safeguarding Children 
(PDF Document, 1.5 MB)




CSE Action Plan 2014-16
(Word Document, 262.5 KB)

Offences against Children

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the cases of organised grooming and sexual exploitation in Rotherham and elsewhere, whether police forces have been issued with new guidance on responding to allegations of abuse; and if so, what is that guidance.

Lord Keen of Elie: The Government does not hold information on the faith of those accused or convicted of child sexual exploitation (CSE) offences.CSE is not exclusive to any single culture, community, race or religion, and anyone who abuses children must be stopped. It happens in all areas of the country and can take many different forms. However, the previous Government’s ‘Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation’ report of March 2015 makes it very clear that the issue of race, regardless of ethnic group, should be tackled as a priority if it is known to be a significant factor in the criminal activity of organised abuse in any local community.The College of Policing (CoP) has issued clear guidance on how police forces should respond to allegations of child sexual abuse and exploitation. This is available on the CoP website at: https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-content/major-investigation-and-public-protection/child-abuse/ .In addition the National Policing Lead for child protection has taken action to revise the national policing CSE action plan to take account of the learning from the Professor Alexis Jay report and other recent publications. All Chief Constables have committed to this action plan that aims to raise standards in tackling CSE so that the police are providing a consistently strong approach to protecting vulnerable young people. The action plan is available on the CoP website at: https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-content/major-investigation-and-public-protection/child-sexual-exploitation/cse-action-plan/



Safeguarding Children 
(PDF Document, 1.5 MB)




Action Plan 
(Word Document, 262.5 KB)

Refugees: Syria

The Lord Bishop of Southwark: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of Syrian refugees scheduled for resettlement to the UK are located in refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Lord Keen of Elie: We work closely with The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify cases that they deem in need of resettlement according to agreed vulnerability criteria for the Syrian Resettlement Scheme. The scheme is based on need and supports those who cannot be supported effectively in their region of origin.We cannot therefore provide long term forecasts relating to the location of refugees within the region but have agreed a timetable of referrals. Volumes will vary, it is therefore not possible to give a percentage figure.

Asylum: France

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many applications for asylum from refugees in the Calais and Dunkirk camp they have accepted under the Dublin III Regulations.

Lord Keen of Elie: Whilst all asylum claims, including those accepted under Dublin III, are registered on the main immigration database the specifics of each case including the route of travel and possible stay in the camps in Calais and Dunkirk can only be ascertained by a manual check of the notes on the immigration database and a physical check of the paper file.It will therefore not be possible to answer this question for reasons of disproportionate cost.

Asylum: Young People

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have forecast how many of the 20,000 asylum seekers to enter the UK by the end of this Parliament will be under 18.

Lord Keen of Elie: We work closely with The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify cases that they deem in need of resettlement according to agreed vulnerability criteria for the Syrian Resettlement Scheme.The scheme is based on need and supports those who cannot be supported effectively in their region of origin.The Home Office is committed to publishing data in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Latest statistics published on 25 February 2016 confirms in 2015, a total of 1,194 people were resettled the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) including 1,085 who arrived in the last quarter of 2015. Of those resettled under the scheme in 2015, 605 were under 18 years old.

Refugees

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the 19,000 remaining refugees to enter the UK by the end of this Parliament have been already identified by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Lord Keen of Elie: We work closely with The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify cases that they deem in need of resettlement according to agreed vulnerability criteria for the Syrian Resettlement Scheme. The scheme is based on need and supports those who cannot be supported effectively in their region of origin.We cannot therefore provide long term forecasts but have agreed a timetable of referrals. This remains subject to change due to a number of operational factors.

Asylum: France

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 15 March (HL6859), how many take-charge notices issued by French authorities have been accepted by British authorities.

Lord Keen of Elie: Data on cases progressed under the Dublin III Regulation is recorded on the main immigration database. However, this data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically and is not currently available.

Asylum: France

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 15 March (HL6859), whether the number of Home Office officials seconded to the Interior Ministry's Dublin Unit in Paris will increase.

Lord Keen of Elie: The case for seconding UK experts to the Interior Ministry’s Dublin Unit is under review.

Tickets: Touting

Lord Moynihan: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 9 July 2015 (HL Deb, col 243), what action the City of London Police and Action Fraud have taken to enforce the ticket touting controls set out in the Consumer Rights Act 2015; and what action is being taken in cases where the law is being broken.

Lord Keen of Elie: The City of London Police is working closely with the Society of Ticketing Agents and Retailers and is actively part of a number of initiatives they are taking to raise standards within the ticketing industry. They are also engaging directly with organisers of major ticketing events in an attempt to stop ticketing touts obtaining tickets on a large scale and proactively search for new websites set up to sell tickets which are in high demand. The City of London Police is also actively engaged with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in their review of secondary ticketing platforms.All ticketing fraud reports received through Action Fraud, where viable lines of enquiry can be identified and links between cases can be seen, are disseminated by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to the local police force for investigation.

Deportation

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of non-EU citizens who face being deported after 6 April because they earn less than £35,000.

Lord Keen of Elie: No migrant workers will be deported from April 2016 as a result of the £35,000 settlement threshold.The threshold only applies to those who entered Tier 2 (General), the skilled work route, from 6 April 2011. Tier 2 workers sponsored in shortage or PhD-level occupations are exempt. Skilled workers may remain in Tier 2 (General) for up to six years in total, after which they are expected to meet the settlement criteria or leave. For those who entered in April 2011, the six year maximum period of stay will expire in April 2017.Those who are paid below the threshold may apply to switch into any other routes for which they are eligible. Those workers who cannot extend their stay will be expected to leave the UK voluntarily when their visa expires. The Home Office published a full impact assessment on the changes to Tier 2 settlement rules when they were laid before Parliament on 15 March 2012. This is available on the gov.uk website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/117957/impact-assessment-tier2.pdf.



Copy - Impact Assessment - Tier 2 
(PDF Document, 285.73 KB)

Immigrants: Detainees

Lord Tebbit: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people held in Immigration Control Centres are not free to leave to go to other jurisdictions.

Lord Keen of Elie: There are no countries to which, as a matter of immigration policy, the Home Office does not return people if they wish to return voluntarily.There may be a small number of people who might be detained for immigration purposes who are not free to leave the jurisdiction of the UK because, for example, of ongoing criminal proceedings but this is not centrally recorded.For those being detained with a view to removal, detention may continue lawfully only for as long as there is a realistic prospect of removal within a reasonable period of time. Home Office guidance is clear that detention must be used sparingly and for the shortest period reasonably necessary to achieve its purpose.

Immigrants: Private Rented Housing

Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the letter from Lord Bates on 21 March following the Report Stage of the Immigration Bill, which states that "migrants who do not understand whether they may qualify for permission to rent may contact the Home Office to establish whether this is the case", whether they will provide a reference to guidance on how migrants can contact the Home Office department or team who will deal with such requests, including requests to confirm that a "right to rent" exists in cases where documents are with the Home Office.

Lord Keen of Elie: Under the Right to Rent scheme, landlords must check the immigration status of those renting, to ensure they are here legally. Where a migrant’s documents are with the Home Office, landlords can confirm the right to rent through the Landlords Checking Service using the migrant’s case reference number.In some limited circumstances, such as where there are genuine obstacles to them leaving, migrants here without leave may be afforded permission to rent although disqualified from renting. Where a migrant is unsure as to whether they qualify for permission to rent, they may contact the caseowner or team that is dealing with their case or ask when they attend the Home Office in compliance with reporting conditions.Guidance on right to rent and when permission to rent may apply is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/landlords-right-to-rent-checks-guide. As I wrote recently, the Government is reviewing the guidance that has already been published and this will provide further detail on how migrants may make these enquiries.



Landlords - Rigth to Rent Checks Guide 
(PDF Document, 273.12 KB)

Cabinet Office

West Lothian Question

Lord Renwick of Clifton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether it is appropriate for Scottish MPs to vote on trading hours in other parts of the UK.

Lord Bridges of Headley: MPs from all parts of the United Kingdom can vote on all legislation before the House of Commons. The introduction of English Votes for English Laws has given English MPs a greater say over matters affecting England only. However, clause 33 of the Enterprise Bill, which related to Sunday trading laws, included provisions that extended to Scotland meaning that Scottish MPs were rightly entitled to vote at every stage in the legislative process.

UK Membership of EU: Referendums

Lord Tebbit: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 14 March (HL6673), whether Mr Hopkins importuned any persons to sign letters to national newspapers concerning the European Referendum or the consequences of a national vote for leaving the EU; and if so, how many (1) were importuned, (2) signed, and (3) declined to do so.

Lord Bridges of Headley: I refer the Noble Lord to the Prime Minister's answer to the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Ms Dorries) on 22 February 2016, Official Report, column 32. As set out in the Civil Service Code, it is the role of the civil service to support the Government of the day in developing and implementing its policies.

G4S: Government Contracts

Lord West of Spithead: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the financial difficulties of G4S will have an impact on any government security contracts.

Lord Bridges of Headley: G4S is a listed company, active in over 110 countries. Information on G4S’s financial performance is publicly available. As one of Government's Strategic Suppliers Cabinet Office undertakes regular analysis of G4S’s performance and financial standing in line with the Strategic Supplier Risk Management Policy, to monitor any possible risks to Government contracts.

Elections: USA

Lord Blencathra: To ask Her Majesty’s Government on how many occasions since 1990 a British Prime Minister has made public remarks about how citizens of the US should vote.

Lord Bridges of Headley: This information is not held.

Government Departments: Newspaper Press

Lord Tebbit: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 16 March (HL6672), whether the respective Codes of Conduct for (1) ministers, (2) officials, and (3) special advisers, allow them to draft letters to be signed by retired military officers or business people and then published in national newspapers.

Lord Bridges of Headley: The respective Codes of Conduct for Ministers, officials and special advisers make clear the role of these individuals in developing and implementing Government policies.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

STEM Subjects: Females

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to encourage more females into STEM professions.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: Government continues to work with partners to raise awareness and interest in STEM careers, including among females.The Government launched the £30m Inspiring Science Capital Fund in January 2016, in partnership with the Wellcome Trust. The fund will help UK science centres invest in exhibitions and education spaces, and reach those who think science is not for them.We also support STEM Ambassadors, a nationwide volunteer network of over 32,000 people from STEM companies or academia, who visit schools to encourage more young people into STEM.In 2014 the Government helped to establish the industry-led Your Life campaign. Your Life has built a strong social media presence to inspire young people, particularly young girls, to study maths and physics as a gateway to exciting and wide-ranging careers.DfE is funding programmes such as the Stimulating Physics Network (£2.15m in 2015-16) and the Further Maths Support Programme (£5m in 2015-16) to support schools and colleges to increase take up of maths and physics with a particular focus on engaging more girls.109, 000 women were accepted onto STEM higher education courses in 2015. This represents an increase of 19.1% since 2010.